What a shame on the cabinet. I liked that one. If you want to do a full restoration you can get veneer and fit it all in. I've never done this before and it depends on how badly you want it fully restored. The machine looks really nice!

My goodness, just cruising the QB on a lazy Saturday evening, I have exactly that machine in exactly that cabinet; only maybe not so worn out--even the little ink pot thing in the drawer on the left. That is my most favorite go-to machine for binding my quilts. I found some furniture finishing polish stuff down in Texas that I have used to clean up the looks of the cabinet. I've been using this machine for something like 15 years, and suppose I am the one who has done the most damage to the cabinet. I have the stool, which came to me still full of the last owner's sewing stuff. It even still has the old-farm-house smell to it--not so bad to make me clean it out, but it is there. If I would place when I first became a "machine addict" this might have been the one who started it.

How fun to read that you have the same machine and cabinet, JoAnn! I like reading that you like it for binding...why exactly do you favor it for that specific job? What is the substance from Texas that you use? How about a picture of your cabinet and machine? It will give me something to shoot for!

I have started to seriously clean the cabinet with Murphy's Oil this evening. I can only do little bits at a time, physically, so this will take awhile. Someone in it's past life covered much of it with shelf contact paper!! Ack!! I know this for sure because I found a few little pieces still attached. Dried contact glue is all over the thing, so I have decided I can't hurt it any more and am going to scrub the tar out of it, haha!

The wood is walnut. Work wood glue under the lifted veneer and clamp it down flat overnight until the glue dries. You can buy walnut veneer and fill in the missing pieces. Try to match the grain as much as possible and trim the veneer to fit. Somewhere like Rockler will have it or buy some on ebay. Just do a search for walnut veneer. There's some pretty serious damage but to me the cabinet and stool are worth the effort. Sanding it down without replacing the missing veneer will remove more veneer and expose the much less expensive and plainer wood of the substrate.
Rodney

Thanks, Rodney. I had no idea you could buy pieces of veneer, and didn't know it was walnut, either. I will go order some to try. The veneer isn't loose, just those spots that are ripped off. The main challenge I have is the hardened glue/tacky swirls.

Hi sdh, here I am again. My son and I have been out in my sewing room all afternoon, and I was so excited about reading this post last week, that I sat down to my 201, took down the number, AG 929684, to find that there were 15000 allotted on Dec 20, 1946. I love this stuff.

I also had to go to another day to find this posting. Now someone needs to tell me how to keep this from getting kicked off my computer. I was going nuts because I couldn't find it anywhere on today's postings. I've heard of the "archive" thing, but don't know how to do it.....

I took my camera out there and took some pictures, but don't know how to post them. You're going to have a fit when you see mine. And I'll try to remember to tell you the name of the stuff I bought in Texas. And the story behind my machine--that is one for the books.

Up towards the top of the page there is a tab labeled "Thread Tools." Click there and you can subscribe to the thread. I think that is how you can follow a thread. I look forward to you figuring out how to post a photo. I am afraid I can't explain it, I just guess and try things. I know you have to go to "Go advanced" and can get photos from your computer.

I have started on my cabinet today. Ordered the veneer Rodney told me about, and am reading Glenn's refinishing tutorial thread. So far, so good.